This is my second time there after 2 years. I still remember that its signature dish is chicken wings and its lime juice is bagus. That is why my colleagues nicknamed it as the lime juice shop.

Well, being back again this time, I still feel that there is nothing much to rave about with regards to its dishes. It did not leave me the urge to come back again. The fishhead was also too small for the 6 of us. The fishhead curry reminded me of Muthu's curry, except I think at least this is better than Muthu's Curry. The grean bean soup was ordinary. It would have taste better with some mandarin orange skin and pandan leaves. For 6 glasses of lime juice, 2 servings of green bean soup, 2 vegetables, 1 pork chop, 1 lamp meat, and 1 fishhead curry, the meal was overpriced.

I don't mind another glass of lime juice though

Me and my friend went to Chinatown for new year shopping. Went pass Tak Po which appeared very decent with a reasonable crowd. Advertisements outside also attracted us. Made me suddenly crave for dim sum.

We did not order what appeared to be the famous frog porridge and opted for fish porridge. We also ordered beancurd skin in oyster sauce, yam cake and rice roll with prawn.

The fish did not come in slices but was cut into small pieces and mixed into the porridge, similarly to shredded chicken. Supposedly boneless, instead we both found a few bones in the soup and hence we took extra care when eating the porridge. It was tedious.

The dim sum that we had was not fantastic, except the yam cake which we find quite delicious.

There was no green chilli and no self-made chilli sauce to do with dim sum. Water costs $0.50 per glass without refill.

In terms of service, ordering, payment and food was fast. The amenities were adequate; the restroom was clean and the place was well-ventilated.

Overall, being a small eater and at $10 per person, I would prefer to eat at Crystal Jade where I spent the same amount of money but the dim sum is better. Also, I had a hard time with the porridge. The place did not satisfy my craving for dim sum.

The ambience was cosy. There is quite a wide variety of food to choose from. The portions came as the right portions so that we have room to try other dishes as well. Nonetheless, we manage to fill up our stomachs, to the brink even before we finish the food list.

One setback was that the food came rather slow and there was a shortage of staff. Hence, we were often unable to find any service crew to order food. Even ordering porridge took more than 10 mins to come. beverage as well. By the time, we wanted to order tour 3rd round of food, the service crew told us that it was our last order already.

The buffet comes with dessert at the dessert bar to our surprise. We had a good time trying the desserts. The ice-creams had unique favours, unlike other buffets. Espresso Ice-cream was my favourite. The green bean soup with the coconut was nice too, except it was too cold. Perhaps the management could try to fix a burner under it to warm it.

With the cosy ambience and quality of good food, it is worth going again.

Perceptions

I am not a fan of ribs and meat. When my colleague told me that we are going to Tony Romas for lunch, I was not particularly enthusiatic. I remembered eating at Tony Romas many years back and I did not like their ribs. Kenny Rogers and Cafe Cartel also disappointed me in terms of their ribs and meat. Pieced together explains my lack of enthusiasm.

1st impression

I was taken by surprise when I first stepped into the restaurant. Very much like stepping into a pub with dim lightings.
We were showed to our seats and very soon I was clicking away on my camera.

Food

For starters, we had bread with butter. simply love the combination. However, it is not refillable (FOC) so the waitress only allowed us to have another half a loaf as free refill.

For 7 of us, we ordered sampler appetitizer as our apetitzer. It was a good choice indeed as the potato skins were crispy and tasty. Heard it is one of their popular dish as well. The boneless bits were delicious too. Although I did not try the spinach dip, my colleagues liked it.

Next comes the the ocean feast. I like the fish best in this dish. It was fried crispy on the outside and very soft in the inside. Unlike some western restaurants who tend to overfry their fish and chips, this was just right.

Next we ordered the rib combo which consists of half slab of pork ribs and BBQ chicken. We ordered mashed potatoes and brocoii as the sides. This is the first time I have eaten ribs where the meat peals off easily from the bones by just using fork and knife. The sauce was sweet and the meat juicy. The mashed potatos and brocoii are my favourites.

The most disappointing was the caesar salad which was salty with the dressing. I could not finish it despite my recent new craving for salad, pamesan cheese and croutons. Crutons were too salty too. As such, I will recommend to have dressing by the side next time if anyone really wants to order caesar salad.

For 7 of us, I think we have over-ordered. Nonetheless, it is still value for money. There is a 2% rebate for citibank card holders.

Who would be as crazy as to arrange a dinner gathering for 15 pax on a Monday Blue night? That's me!

However, we hardly expect ourselves to be the only big table reservation in the restaurant. With only another 3 individual diners and another family of 3, the resturant was almost deserted. It must have been affected by the food poisoning of Man Fu Yuan. Macam VIPs!

Nevertheless, I am glad of the tranquility and service was very efficient as a result. The display of the food was neat and attractive, especially the seafood and dessert corners. My favourites were the drunken prawns, fried rice, mushroom soup and pork rib soup, chocolate pudding and cakes and the tirmisu ice-cream. The prawns were very fresh and sweet. Fried rice was cooked with sausages which made it very savoury. The soups were delicious and the chocolate desserts were very rich and yummy. My colleagues also commented thet the roast beef was nice but I forgot to try it. Mango pudding however, was really disappointing as it was too sweet. The kueh was also hard and cold. My colleagues commented that the oysters were too small, but I was not concerned with it as I do not take oysters.

This is one of the nicer buffets I have been, although the price is still a bit steep with a 3-dines-for-1-free credit card promotion (Citibank, ANZ etc). The feedback that I have received is that it is not really suitable for Muslims as there are quite a number of pork dishes. However, I would recommend diners with a sweet tooth and soup lovers to go there.